'You can get a drink 200m from Vatican on Good Friday - why not here?'

Restaurants are calling for change "as soon as possible" to the Good Friday ban on alcohol sales.

Legislation from 1927 says drink cannot be sold on Good Friday or Christmas Day, with just a few exemptions applying to the rules.

Chief executive of the Restaurants Association Adrian Cummins said he did not believe religious reasons were enough to warrant the ban anymore.

"Within 200 metres of the Vatican you can get a drink (on Good Friday)," he said. "If they can allow it in Rome, why can't we allow it (here)? We must be the last country in the world to change these laws."